The Anniston Star ● Monday, September 14, 2009
MONDAY RECORD YOUR GUIDE TO PUBLIC RECORDS AND VITAL STATISTICS IN CALHOUN COUNTY
OFF TO WORK ... WITH A HOT DOG VENDOR
Gene Farmer takes grilling hobby to next level, sets up downtown hot dog stand BY BILL EDWARDS bedwards@annistonstar.com
A hot dog stand might look like the archetype of the do-it-yourself, instantly profitable business, but the reality is that setting one up requires as much attention to detail as any other business — just on a smaller scale. That’s what Gene Farmer learned after he decided to take a skill he already had and go off to work with it. “I enjoy grilling and I thought it might be an opportunity to create some revenue,” Farmer, 60, said one day last week while setting up his brand-new stand in the Calhoun County Courthouse parking lot. “It’s an honest way to make a dollar. It’s not a real strenuous job,” he said modestly, although coming as he does from a previous life of literally working on the railroad — he used to be a Norfolk Southern conductor — strenuous might be a relative term. After all, the cart does weigh about 300 pounds, he estimated. When you’re essentially a one-man show, you get to run it along the lines of what pleases you, not what market research dictates. “I try to fix a hot dog the way I would eat it,” said Farmer, noting that his favorite style
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is meat chili and onions. The secret to a good hot dog is the meat itself; his dogs come from a Birmingham dealer. A customer at Farmer’s stand can also ask for relish, sauerkraut, ketchup and mustard. “That’s what’s so good about this, they can get what they want, how they want it.” All for two bucks — a little more if it’s a chili dog. Canned drinks (out of an ice chest) and bagged chips (hanging on display clips) round out the curbside dining experience. What they won’t get is a hamburger, and grease is the word on why that’s the case. “The cart doesn’t have a way to handle the grease, the by-product of frying the meat,” Farmer explained. That’s just one aspect of the Health Department’s regulations that have to be obeyed in an enterprise of this type. Another rule requires four sinks at the cart, so four sinks he has. Another rule requires a clean and protected place to store his cart at night, so he has that at his house in Oxford. That’s also where he’s required to dump the water used for cooking the hot dogs — even though a storm drain is right beside his cart. Please see WORK ❙ Page 3
Stephen Gross/The Anniston Star
Gene Farmer’s hot dogs can come with meat chili, onions, relish, sauerkraut, ketchup and mustard.
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